Many people engage in communications using a variety of techniques. These techniques include telephone calls, emails, video- and tele-conferences, instant messaging, and the like. Often, the number of communications as well as the number of different types of communications can interfere with people's ability to properly process all the information contained in the communications.
Such problems are exacerbated by remote workers. Such workers are often on deadline and are receiving and transmitting information over a plurality of communication channels simultaneously. Collaboration and communication are key to the success of such workers, necessitating conference calls and other many-to-many communication forms. Indeed, it is not uncommon for a remote worker to be ‘double-scheduled’ and be a participant in two (or more) conference calls simultaneously.
Unfortunately, often people are not the focus of the communication even though they have information necessary for the success of the communication. For example, conference calls are a valuable communication tool, but often have many participants with little interest in much of the conversation. In such a situation, their attention can wander and focus on other communications or tasks. In the event that their input is then sought in the conference call, the person may be unable to contribute to the best of their ability without an understanding of the question, as well as the context of the question.
It is therefore a challenge to develop a method to manage communications to overcome these, and other, disadvantages.